Sorry to hear you've had problems but i set up dualboot on two hard
drives without a problem. I'd class myself as an average user. You
have to put XP on first and ubuntu does the rest.

Try it on two hard drives - that allows one to re-install XP if the
need arises and allows one to install the 6 month releases of ubuntu
with the minimum of hassle. Keep all work files on a remote hard drive
which you can then access whatever OS you are using.

Many folk are dualbooting on one drive without problems. Again, sorry
to hear of your grief but it does work. I've used downloaded iso and
checked them each time with the check and been fine every time. Last
time i let Brasero burn at a faster speed and it was still ok - until
then i always burned at 4X.

I myself am a complete newbie to Ubuntu/Linux and I had no problems setting up a
dual boot on my computer. I did install Ubuntu on a seperate HD (250gig), and
left XP on the main drive alone other the grub.
Ubuntu to me was easy to setup. I did have to get a new wireless card to work
with ubuntu but found one for $30.00 and could not get it to read dvd, but there
is enough info around that I finally got it going also.

Ubuntu in my opinion was actually easier to install then doing the upgrades from
98 to XP.

I don't know what went wrong with your installation and you don't say if
both OS's are on one hard drive or two but I think that your statement
that Ubuntu is not for the average user who carefully follows
instructions is a rather sweeping one. I am a total newbie to all things
Linux but, in the last two months, I have set up a dual-boot with XP and
HH, then added Kubuntu into a multi-boot setup, then started afresh with
XP and Mint, then added Mepis into the mix (with grub on the Mepis
partition) and then finally repartitioned my second hard drive to remove
Mepis and give all the space to Mint! The only part that was a bit
problematic was restoring grub to Mint but with a bit of advice from the
forums, the live CD and ten minutes work that was soon achieved.

At each stage I carefully followed instructions and each time the
various Linux installations behaved impeccably. Although I am a fairly
competent XP user, I'm certainly no power user and, as I said, a total
newbie to command lines, terminals (an unfortunate term really, if you
happen to kill your installation!!) etc.

I'm pretty sure that if you post some further details of your setup and
what has gone wrong, someone will be able to point you in the right
direction.

I agree! While I am a relative newbie to Linux, I've been into computers
since the early 70's. Ubuntu is extremely easy to use,setup and expand
upon. Google has been my dearest friend!

I agree! While I am a relative newbie to Linux, I've been into computers
since the early 70's. Ubuntu is extremely easy to use,setup and expand
upon. Google has been my dearest friend!

Nothing is ever guaranteed. Any OS can result in installation problems,
including Windows. Dual booting is not easy. It can be very time consuming and
can take some fiddling, especially with Vista. It works better with XP. There is
good news and bad news.

The good news is that you had the nerve to try and got some favorable results.
The bad news is that it did not work the first time. Many of us have tried many
times before we got the technique down.

The first thing to do before you install is to find out whether Ubuntu works in
the first place with your computer. Unlike Windows Ubuntu is a relatively short
installation. I would install Ubuntu first with the intent of wiping it out,
just to see if it works. Since your system won't work anyway you have little to
lose but the time involved. If the Ubuntu installation hangs then troubleshoot
that as a learning exercise.

A blinking cursor can mean many things. It likely means that there is a setting
or piece of hardware that is improperly detected. Linux is modular. As the boot
process proceeds it loads servers and processes in sequence. When it detects a
problem the system will stall until it is resolved. It could be a drive, video,
dma, acpi, almost anything. The trick is to get a text readout called verbose as
it loads rather than the GUI screen, called quiet. This will give you a better
idea so that you can change the settings. One of the ways to do this is to use
the alternative installation CD. Another is to change the boot parameters so
that it is not quiet which is the default setting.

As far as I know there is no longer a hotkey to use as the graphical screen is
displayed to switch to verbose. There used to be, but users demanded a graphical
screen like Windows that looks more professional. Many distros allow the Esc key
or F1 to show verbose messages. Somewhere along the line the baby was thrown out
with the bathwater and this was taken out of Ubuntu. There is a suggestion on
Brainstorm to bring back the hotkey.

This is how to edit grub to get it verbose:ubuntumagnet.com/.../verbose-startup-and-shutdown-screens-ubuntuThere is also a link that suggests that this speeds up booting significantly, if
you can put up with scrolling text instead of graphics and a progress bar. The
link is:ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php+bootSee also:ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=416604Since you can't boot, it means that you will have to do this from the Live CD.
The only difference with the instructions is that you will have to navigate to
your Ubuntu installation and look for the /boot/grub folder to find menu.lst.

This will not solve your problem, but will give you an idea what the problem is.
Once you know that then you can change the boot parameters is grub or fix
xorg.conf, etc.

If all else fails, try installing Windows using the whole drive and install
Ubuntu using Wubi. This will enable you to work with Windows and installing
Ubuntu will not affect Windows because there is no partitioning and the Windows
bootloader is used, with Windows being the default. Nothing is simpler. Even if
Ubuntu won't install you can do it over and over until you get it right and
Windows will still boot.